Even for those who weren’t reared in the 1980s, Pac-Man is a pop culture icon. The resonance of this yellow, dot-gobbling protagonist who traverses a dizzying labyrinth riddled with goal-thwarting ghosts transcends the vintage arcade. That is why the boldly hued, path-blocking monsters eager to derail Pac-Man dress the corridors of Ibis Styles Budapest Center. The 130-room hotel, which opened this spring in tandem with Ibis Styles Budapest City close to the Danube River, is a nostalgia-inducing ode to video games. Polish firm Tremend Architektura, with offices in Wroclaw and Warsaw, oversaw both Ibis Styles properties—part of AccorHotels’ growing global portfolio of budget-minded, boutique-style accommodations showcasing distinct design.
Piotr Kalinowski, the principal and architect design manager tasked with Ibis Styles Budapest Center, says he showcases this retro theme because video games of yesteryear are a phenomenon, “and a lot of adults come back to the ones they played when they were youngsters. Video games are meant for a free, relaxing time, but also are vibrant and energetic.”
Beyond the front desk, stocked with the likes of Tetris and Rubik’s Cubes, is the breakfast and bar area, where guests sit down on canary-colored metal chairs at a communal table covered in a pixelated map. Here, blackboard paint melds with oak, and a trifecta of intimate dining domes are “inspired by childhood dinnertime,” Kalinowski says. The massive robot image dominating one wall adds a jolt of playfulness en route to the meeting rooms. Situated in what was once the historic Metropol hotel built for Budapest’s 1896 Hungarian National Millennium Exhibition celebrations, the property honors the past by gracing each floor’s walls with subway tiles from stations along the city’s M1 line, Europe’s first underground metro system. They pave the way to the guestrooms, many of which star Space Invaders murals above the beds and bespoke carpeting that elicits “the feeling of floating in space above a huge city in an old video game,” says Kalinowski.
For the Ibis Styles Budapest City, set in a bustling business zone, the aesthetic celebrates the markedly different pastime of cycling. “The fast pace of modern life moved people to come back to an old-fashioned way of transport,” says designer Agnieszka Kowalska, who led the project. “Nowadays people lose too much time during traffic jams. Bicycles are the answer for those who don’t want that.”
To depict this sporty theme, Kowalska embraced a zippy yellow and black palette. Guests take the lobby’s “bike lane” to the bar, where stools flaunt pedals and handlebars. More bicycle references permeate the space, from lamps that mimic wheels to seats resembling rubber. In each of the 130 guestrooms, bathrooms feature a checkerboard pattern that conjures a race flag, along with large, whimsical images of bike-wielding lemons above the bed to connote the purity and happiness synonymous with biking regimens. Street art vignettes in the public spaces further underscore cycling’s deep-seated connection to culture. “We found very talented artists from Warsaw to give the hotel fresh breaths,” Kowalska explains. “Now, it is a bit of a bittersweet symphony.”
